Stendhal syndrome

Stendhal syndrome is a psychosomatic illness that occurs as a reaction to art. Also known as hyperkulturemia, this particular condition produces an overwhelming reaction to a large amount of art being gathered in one place or if a work of art is particularly attractive to the viewer. Stendhal syndrome produces actual physical symptoms as the result of the psychological and emotional reaction to art.

Stendhal’s syndrome is named in honor of the famous French writer, Stendhal, who experienced overwhelming symptoms of anxiety and even fainted while viewing art in Italy. It was an Italian psychologist named Graziella Magherini, however, who in the 1970s first began to apply this label to others with symptoms similar to those first described by Stendhal in the 19th century. Symptoms of Stendhal syndrome include anxiety, heart palpitations, diziness and fainting. Some individuals experiencing this condition have even been noted to experience hallucinations while observing great works of art.

Stendhal syndrome can be experienced by anyone overwhelmed by artistic masterpieces. It most commonly occurs, however, in individuals visiting works of art in Florence, Italy, which is why it is also called Florence syndrome by some. It is such a frequently occurring syndrome in this part of the world that hospital staff workers in that area report that symptoms are commonly recognized when disoriented patients arrive at a hospital soon after admiring nearby works of art.

Well, have you experienced it?

here in America we dont have this mental disorder, and its not grouped in with what america calls dissociative disorders......

thats not to say people here dont have this problem. its just that the symptoms are named anxiety/panic disorders, Aspergers, Attention deficit disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactive disorder, and other mental and physical health problems where concentration, information overload, over stimulation and anxiety are symptoms, and depending upon other accompanying symptoms.

thanks for the information though, its very interesting to me how different locations name the same grouping of symptoms.

To be honest I've just found out about its existence. Apparently it's pretty common.
I don't see it as a mental disorder, though.
You're welcome!

Pretty Common??

Stendhal syndrome can be experienced by anyone overwhelmed by artistic masterpieces.

No, this is different than all of those things you mentioned.
As was stated, it is specifically in reaction to exposure to art- I think it is generally believed to be psychosomatic in origin. It's basically like "wow this thing is so overwhelmingly beautiful it's making me crazy".

It is fairly common in places that are considered centers of fine art- but many of the tourists who experience it do not recognize it. It is thought to be attributable to many other possible factors, and there is also a spectrum of severity.

This is a blog entry about it, but it includes a link to a short podcast called "Stendhal Syndrome: Kicked in the Brain by Art".

I ran across it a while ago- NPR also did a segment on it. It's kind of fascinating how are brains deal with "wow." sometimes.

Yeah, you explained it a lot better than me
Thanks for the link also!

thanks for the link....

since yesterday I have been talking with my treatment providers....turns out I have heard of this only in a very different way....sometimes on religious shows they will show people who are just fine one second and the next passing out cold. the religious shows call this taking a walk with jesus..

the medical community here in NY calls it being in such a heightened state of awe, belief, anxiety, over stimulation the body medically goes into "shock" "shell Shock" "culture shock mode that includes blood pressure increasing or decreasing, hyperventilation, heart palpitations and other physical symptoms that cause a person to pass out.

it doesnt just happen with being exposed to art though in some people thats how it presents itself, in some people it revolves around their religion, others relocating to another country,location, some people its shopping, others it is part of their phobia/anxiety or other mental or physical health problem.

it happens so much that some medical and mental health people are separating each instance and giving it a name....kind of like when the mental health community comes up with changing DID into DID and OSDD. at first everything was lopped in together and now that they know more about it they separated it into two mental disorders..

now that they know more about people fainting like this they are giving it an official label....lopping all these types of situations together its called......Syncope (a fainting spell) now they are starting to come up with labels for each type of Syncope....Hysteria, Stendhal, .......

at least this is what I have been able to find out so far from treatment providers around NY about this.

This is really interesting but confusing and seems to blur the line of physiological and psychological. Syncope is often caused by low blood pressure [though there are other causes] which makes the circulation of oxygen lower than normal via blood in your brain [as I understand it, I'm not a physician so I really have laymen's understanding].
But that in itself can be caused by a number of factors.

I'm betting a couple new studies came out around the time of the HowStuffWorks podcast and the NPR show I was referring to, which instigated new interest in it.

I read that there are now more rigorous studies being done to gain understanding of Stendhal and who might be more susceptible to it, etc.

To label something as syncope with the distinction of Stendhal [or however they would do it] would be... really confusing.

I'm so glad I don't work for an insurance company- like who deals with that classification and such? haha

It's kind of funny to see the term hysteria come back out.

Neat.

here in america the term hysteria has never stopped being used.......its a general term for anyone who is over come by emotions example a few years back I was going through some PTSD issues and one day I kept bouncing back and forth between crying hysterically, laughing hysterically, and fainting spells. if I wasnt crying I was laughing or out cold. and I was just so over whelmed with emotions I could not stop. my treatment providers wrote in my files I was going through PTSD induced hysteria (episodes of extreme over whelming emotions). but I agree it is kind of funny to get that label thats had such the background it has.

what does that have to do with dissociation, I guess it should be an anxiety disorder and probably is considered a specific phobia lol
xx
Cali

yes here in america this kind of problem is usually lopped in with anxiety problems but the original poster is in Europe not the USA they have a different system for what category some mental disorders are in, maybe in the original posters location this issue is categorized as a dissociative disorder because some people with anxiety is what sets off their dissociative problems? just a thought, due to when I gooogled it some of the entries that were made over in other countries have listed this as having dissociative problems besides anxiety problems.

example spain used to call stendhal syndrome...dissociative fugue.

are you sure??? I'm Spanish and here Psychiatry is so underrated that most psychiatrists don't even know what dissociation is lol
but dissociative fugue is loosing your identity, finding yourself somewhere and not knowing who you are... at least until DSM-IV; now it's been moved to a Dissociative Amnesia specifier.
I really never heard of dissociative fugue as stendahl syndrome
Calixx

I used to feel that way when entering a book store or library. As a reader and English teacher, similar?

yes I am sure, one of my coworkers attended a college Seminar/workshop in Madrid. she was amazed at how some of our diagnostic labels and forms of treatment here in america is different then in Spain.

also the reason why treatment providers in spain were classing it as dissociative disorder/dissociative Fugue is because some of the symptoms of stendhal syndrome for some people is having amnesia that can include not remembering they fainted, not remembering getting up and not remembering leaving and going somewhere else., sometimes it can come with dissociative numbness, and other depersonalization/derealization symptoms.

for some people yes this is similar for others no, your treatment provider can tell you based on your own situation if what you went through is similar.

I think I may have experienced this, but it could be related to my schizoaffective disorder. I used to go to museums a lot when I was younger, and I felt like I could get lost in the paintings (especially landscapes and portraits), sometimes physically wandering through them in my head. Like a really intense daydream. Or if I saw a really amazing work of art, I would be filled with awe, more at the overall work and how the details work together than the details themselves... Both experiences were very disorienting. This happens even more when it comes to natural beauty; I feel very disoriented and detached from others. I feel I am seeing something they cannot. Often I lose touch with my body and feel disembodied (both with art and nature). I sometimes get tunnel vision. Beyond that it starts to get delusional (a beam of sunlight being a message, feeling the environment is trying to communicate with me, eventually I may start hallucinating voices and people) but at a low level it can be a pretty pleasant experience. It's pretty much exactly how I imagine being high would feel.

As far as I've always understood it... dissociative fugue is [and has been for a long time] way more than like, fainting and not remembering, or not remembering an hour or two. Classically- it often describes situations as drastic as people just leaving their lives entirely, winding up in a different state for months possibly years. It has been shifted around but even now it is used in that manner often instead of using specific DSM terminology [particularly RIGHT NOW because new DSM versions and so many people just have been tossing theirs in the trash and retrieving it the next day to only wash rinse and repeat. ...which is a good time]

They don't know where they came from and have no previous knowledge of their lives before.

Dissociative fugue is difficult to get confused with Stendahl Syndrome- I'm actually pretty sure that Stendhal would be stuck in the back pages with all the "uncool" culture-bound kids.

different countries, locations, cultures have different definitions for mental disorders .... here in the US the mental health community went by the standard that dissociative fugue can happen to anyone, and that it did not necessarily have a time limit of months or years.

the DSM IV TR which has been the standard from the year 2000 to may 2013 states dissociative fugue 300.13 ...

Criterion A: sudden, unexpected travel to some far off place, away from one’s normal surroundings or place of residence. There is inability to recall any or all of one’s past.

Criterion B: assumption of a new identity, or at the very least, confusion of one’s personal identity (leading to doubts about “who am I?”).

Criterion C: the impairment is not due to the direct effect of physiological effect of substance or a general medical condition.

Criterion D: the symptoms are such as to cause distress which is clinically significant, and / or lead to impairment in important areas of functioning.

for me I may alternate personalities took me to other states and started whole new lives.. but this doesnt necessarily happen to other who do not have alternate personalities....

if you read criterion B you will see that the very least severity is ....confusion...similar to someone who has amnesia and doesnt know who they are....

sometimes with stendhals a person who has fainted can get up and walk around in a dissociated fugue state of mind where they dont know who they are and how they got where they are at that moment when they suddenly become aware that they are not where they last remembered their self to be.

also the reason why you may read some people on here going by the DSM IV TR standards and others going by the DSM 5 standards may be because their location may not be going by the DSM 5 yet or their treatment providers have not changed over yet. there are many people on psych central who are from different countries, locations cultures and treatment providers so not everyone goes by the same standards, and yes that can get confusing...

I try to meet the members here on what ever ground/ standard definitions/.....they are on and at the same time let people know what I go by because I am in the NY that is in the USA.

my opinion is here there is no right or wrong, everyone posts according to what their own location, culture, treatment providers go by.

mmm. I agree to a certain extent.
That doesn't mean there is no right or wrong, though. I mean there are still defined criteria [like you just posted, for example] and standard practices and treatments. So there is an actual definition of terminology.

While Spain, for example, may use both the ICD and the DSM [and actually in some cases so does the US] it doesn't mean they don't adhere to each diagnostic system's definition of dissociative fugue... which are very similar into the DSMIVTR at least.

I guess I'm just saying it's not helpful to muddy things with vague terminology that may or may not be accurate if it isn't in very common usage if we are discussing specifics of a mental health issue for discussion sake. I get that like... it's for casual knowledge, but it's still for knowledge, ya know?

A small outlier group of treatment providers in NY may conflate stendhal with dissociative fugue or simply subsume any syndrome or state that has dissociative elements under the whole "dissociative spectrum"... but that's not really common practice?

I don't know, just don't find it helpful to suggest that it is- based on a small sample size not the standard definitions commonly used. I do think it is interesting and relevant to know that there are some providers who chose to use other definitions, etc. however.